Barry Ten

I've resumed work on the Tamiya Tomcat I started last year... I needed a break from it as it's just too big to fit on my workbench (or nearly anywhere else) making it awkward to work on. However I felt I'd better get this one done before starting another kit.

The quartering looks to be a little off.

That happened with (another) rc Mustang that a friend and I tried to fly. In our ignorance, we hadn't put any side-thrust on the electric engine we'd put in the plane, so as soon as it was off the ground it yawed hard to left. It went into the road/verge so not as bad as the wall but still a fair bit of damage to put right. It does give you a renewed appreciation for model trains. Imaging building a DJH pacific then throwing it up into the air to see if it "works".

That makes perfect sense, as the test loco that I was using while unable to get the frog juicers to work was an HO 0-6-0 tank, so very short wheelbase.

Several Lancasters and Short Stirlings for me when I was younger, but none survived into adulthood. The ones I've built most of since then are the aforementioned P51s/Mustangs in various scales, including a 1/8th wooden kit for a radio control one which I've still yet to fly, not yet having the confidence to take it up. The new-ish Airfix 1/48 Mustang is very good, but the other brands are all decent. The first railway kits I built were the Airfix brake van and the BR 2-6-0, which I naively hoped would be able to function as a push-along loco on my train set, if I stuffed enough plasticene into the boiler. The first plastic kit I attempted after returning to modelmaking in my thirties was a Parkside CCT, which went together well. I didn't have any intention of returning to aviation modelling until a friend wanted to visit the huge "Wings" model shop that used to be near Schiphol airport. Almost to keep him company I came out with a 1/24 Hurricane and never looked back. It turned out to be a nice modelling project that tided me over between layouts when moving back to the UK.

This P51 was made from flat pieces of laser-cut wood that you had to laminate together and then sand to profile. Great fun!

Some of us never stopped making Airfix kits... here is one of the latest, the very new and impressive 1/48 Sea King. Next to it is a different kettle of fish, the Meng Mustang. I've built 1/48 Mustangs from all the main companies but this one is snap-together... although reputedly building into a nice model. Both kits show what can be done with modern design and tooling methods.

I've started adding pavements (sidewalks!) etc to the new bit of the peninsula, as well as finalising the arrangement of buildings. I've also cut away a bit of the fascia to create a small drop-down area hinting at a bit of riverside. I'm not a fan of the flat-earth school of baseboards - even a minor variation in terrain below the track level can look good, and help with photo angles. Finally, here's a short clip of the Conrail train passing through the new scene. Cheers and thanks for reading.

Yes, I've got a couple of the Georgia Kaolin cars. I must admit I don't know much about the industry, but food for thought...

I felt like getting some of the more modern units out for a spin, so here are a couple of Conrail locos getting a run. If you're bored, there are at least a couple of gators to spot in the creek.

There's only one of them so it's Uni-Frog! In other news, Conrail units crossing Gator Creek:

Conrail SD70 and SD80 units on a manifest freight crossing Gator Creek, SC.

I did acquire a couple of Walthers coal mine kits, and started laying the loops at the end of the branch for them, but the enthusiasm to push on has been a bit lacking, partly because it would push into a part of the room where I'm no longer really keen on having a bit of the layout, and also because it doesn't really fit into the Georgia theme of that part of the model. I've been thinking about selling the mine kits or making a micro-layout with them, but I don't think they fit into the grand plan any more. Haven't really thought about a quarry, though.

Leah from The Good Doctor also drives a red Starsky & Hutch Torino although I'm assuming different plates.

Jo Whiley said something about hearing his records at grandparents' houses and that's exactly how it was for me, memories of my grandmother playing RW on her old record player, over and over, but the music and voice leaving an indelible warm impression after fifty years. The shock was realising what a relatively young man he must have been at the time!!! 😯

A pair of SD24s run through Preston, SC having departed Paynesville, GA earlier that day.

I'm amazed to see that I haven't posted anything in this thread for nearly two years! I suppose I've been quite happy just tinkering here and there, running trains as and when the mood suits, but not feeling any particular rush to crack on with this or that. However, over the last few months there has been a bit more in the way of progress. Unfortunately a lot of the older pictures have been lost in the RMweb image crash (I might have some, but not all of them elsewhere) so I can't provide a "before" shot just now, but I've been reworking the end of the peninsula to give it a bit more width. It was a funny shape originally, due to it being recycled from an old baseboard, but there was scope for widening the end without significantly intruding into the room space. Three views of the extended peninsula: the yellow/pink foam is where the extra width has been gained, and the original grey-painted road more or less defines the extent of the peninsula before the additions. As you can see, one of the yard tracks ran quite close to the edge originally, but is now tucked back quite a bit, which is nicer from both a visual and a safety standpoint, as there's now less likelihood of knocking a car onto the floor. The original peninsula had a curved profile, so grafting the extension onto it required some careful work with templates and a jigsaw. Given it was me doing the work, I was suprised at how neat it all came out. This was all done back in the early summer when it was dry enough to set a workmate out on the decking, as it hate doing any kind of wood or foam cutting indoors! The main gain in doing this was to find room for all these buildings, to create a more built-up environment around the depot. Comparisons with earlier views, if I could find them, would show just a short row of buildings opposite the station. Where have all the others come from? The answer is that they were all located elsewhere on the layout, on the removable area over the storage sidings. I gradually came to realise that they weren't "working" there - the buildings were set too far back from the operator for any details to be worthwhile, and just as importantly, the logic of why there would be a town there wasn't clear, nor did it fit into the admittedly sketchy notion that one part of the layout is in Georgia, the other South Carolina. The town would have been on the State Line, if anywhere! So I decided to relocate the town to the area around the depot, which has now become the logical heart of the layout, given it's close to both the yard and the motive power depot. The placement of buildings is still a work in progress, but some combination of them all just about fits. This process of scrapping one idea (the town over the storage sidings) got me thinking about the design choices I made at the start of the layout build in 2008, and the wrong turns that have followed. It's interesting (to me!) that the initial phase of the layout still works just as well for me as when I finished the basic scenery. The river crossing, the industrial switching area, all just does what I wanted it to, and I've done very little tinkering with it in the last decade or so. Comparison with shots from over a decade ago will show very little difference with these scenes, other than the addition of an extra siding around the fuel depot and a slight realignment/expansion of the latter. The main tracks and buildings are untouched and it all still works for me visually. Things start going off-script when we come to the branch line, which was not part of the original scheme: I really love the separation of the branch from the main, with the grade of the former going up, the latter descending, and the road bridge over the two. However, what happens to the branch thereafter has been a series of misteps and problems. Originally, the idea was for the branch to swing out onto a totally removable peninsula that would function as a small exhibition layout in its own right - it was going to be some kind of harbour scene with dockside tracks, cranes and a ship or two. However, I could never work out a plan that satisfied me. I then added to the confusion by including the loco terminal, which was fine in itself, but which then looked a bit odd standing on its own without a depot or classification yard nearby. That was resolved by using the peninsula to contain both the yard and the depot, swinging the mainline out into the room, but the branch then didn't have anywhere to go but continue along the walls, as it now does, skirting past the site of the former town. In doing so, it created a jarring impression as it was not only dead straight, but run parallel to the baseboard edge - even though virtually every other bit of visible track on the layout is neither straight nor parallel! The coming months, then, may well settle the branch's fate - it could be removed in its entirety, made a bit bendier, or truncated back to just a short industrial spur serving a factory or two. Whatever happens, there will be some change. However, that's all good as far as I'm concerned, especially if it helps reconnect with the initial "less is more" design philosophy of the layout. Thanks for reading, especially after the hiatus!

Can anyone summarise the main things needing doing to the B12 to get it looking good? I presume lowering the body would help, but are the basic dimensions of the boiler, wheelbase OK? I've got one of the slightly tarted-up Chinese B12s (with the sandpaper chuff-chuff effect) and always fancied doing something with it.

My 4F and 2P are still on the old tender drive, but I think they run well on DCC. All I've done to this one is shorten the loco-tender gap and rework the guard irons, sand pipes etc, plus renumbering to an S&D example. The 2P runs as reliably, but it's inevitably asked to run a bit faster than the 4F so there's more motor noise.

The ideal scenario? Coffee, croissant, GWR surroundings and the new MRJ?

A few more golden oldies, all bought between 40 and 50 years ago. A work in progress this, on the venerable 8750 body (Christmas present, 1973!) with a Bachmann chassis under it. Top feed removed, cab side sheets thinned, new handrails etc. Of similar vintage, the Triang-Hornby Co-Co with slightly tweaked body on a Railroad (ex-Lima) chassis. The paint job and wonky lettering is from my early teens. Lima Western Enterprise, bought the week it came out. Detailed and with a new can motor, but otherwise the same Lima gear train. Lima 08, detailed and lowered, but otherwise much as bought. Again, a new can motor but the same Lima gear train. The extra large buffers were to handle tight curves on my old layout! None of these models is anywhere near perfect but they've all been on a journey with me, so they have a lot of significance.

Again, at the risk of spamming the thread with videos ... the Tri-ang BP had a lot going for it, other than the compromised ends, wrong bogies, generic underframe detail and lack of different coaches... however the moulded details were sharp and a good basis for improvement.

The Tri-ang Hornby West Country can be tarted up quite nicely too. The ride-height and proportions are still good if you put it next to a more recent model.

I've always been pretty happy with the level of detail attained about 40 years ago, with the Airfix/Mainline releases of the late 70s/early 80s. They were such a step up from what had gone before. I can see where there've been improvements, but provided the overall shape is about right, I'm not all that bothered about the remaining shortcomings. That's why I'm still happily running the slightly updated Bachmann stuff from the 90s and early 00s. To my uncritical eye, a touch of weathering and maybe a few small extra details is all they need to look good at normal viewing distance. I've had some of the usual split-chassis gremlins, but the majority of my locos are still OK - as hopefully illustrated by these clips of the Bachmann Manor, Mogul and Modified Hall. They're running on DCC and still do the jobs required of them. And there's plenty of older Hornby and Tri-ang stuff on my layout too, although mostly running on newer chassis.

I took the body off last night and couldn't see anything to indicate what the problem might have been. It still ran fine on DC, not trace of binding etc, although the motor might have been getting a little warm. Couldn't see any exposed or snagged wiring either. The chip had very definitely blown, though, since there was that characteristic blister on one of the modules. What I'll do is swap the chassis over to the one from my GWR one which only ever runs on DC, so there should (hopefully) be no recurrence.